Great North Swim: Did I Really Sign Up For This?

Did I really sign up for this? I should have retired in glory after my one and only previous participation in the Great North Swim last year.

The Great North Swim is the biggest swimming event ever to be staged in Britain with 10,000 participants. Hosted at Low Wood Bay Resort Hotel & Marina

Early on a wet Thursday morning struggling into my unreasonably tight wetsuit for a training swim with my colleagues Ian Woods and Simon Berry.

Paul and his cheerful team from the Low Wood Bay Watersports Centre are arriving for their working day and, resisting the temptation to make jokes about us wannabee athletes, they are full of encouraging words.

Once in the lake I realise that it’s a perfect morning for a swim. Water flat calm and a very comfortable 18 degrees (a vast improvement on the icy 10 degrees when I first tested the water a couple of weeks ago).

We head out at a gentle pace past the smart looking boats in the Marina and head up the lake in the rough direction that the 1-mile course will follow on June 23rd.

That’s a scary thought – just 3 weeks to go to the big weekend – why did I not start training a few months earlier?

David Neale, Commercial Director, English Lakes is set to take part in the Great North Swim. The swim is only 3 weeks away and as David steps up his training for the event he will post his progress right here on the blog. Are you training for the event? Let us know about your progress in the comments below.